Not Child-friendly Childhood
by Katz Monster
Summary: Paul has always kept his emotions to his self. Time to find out why. Paul and Reggie's backstory.


**This is the backstory I gave Paul... I will give you a full warning now, it's really dark. Contains child abuse, alcohol, gangs running away and a bit of fluff at the end to cheer you up! Ikari of course! Anyway, I've warned you.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own pokemon!**

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There's a reason I don't express myself much. My childhood was never exactly child-friendly, for me or Reggie. Every time I think of what happened memories flood back to me and I withdraw from society even more. I was only three years old when it started, but I still remember every detail. I used to think that nothing could take away the pain I felt, but then you came and turned my world upside down.

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It started on a Tuesday evening, my dad was suppose to come back from work, but he was late as usual. It wasn't until an hour had past that we realised something was wrong. My mum went to his office and found him lying on the floor, unconscious. She brought him home and the next morning was fine, nothing out of the ordinary.

Well, it was that way until Mum went to work. Dad was supposed to be looking after us, but left after our mum was gone. Reggie was eight years old, so he could look after us some what. Dad came home half an hour before Mum did and cleaned up the mess we made. However, I noticed something different about him. Instead of commenting on how messy we can be, he did it silently. Actually, throughout the whole night he was silent.

Things continued like this for a few days before Mum started to suspect something. So, she did what any good wife would do and stayed at home with him. Dad didn't seem to understand though and went to work anyway.

When he came home he looked anything but ordinary, his hair had been dyed aqua and cut short into a bowl-cut. His clothes changed too, he wore long black pants and a weird silver shirt with a gold 'G' in the centre of it. The thing that changed most however, was his eyes. Instead of a grey twinkling with happiness and a love for everything, they were a dull grey, dead, lifeless, emotionless. We didn't know what do to, so we didn't do anything and my father was fading away before me.

On my first day of pre-school I was bullied to no end. Whether it was from my mauve hair, or charcoal eyes, they wouldn't stop. So, I eventually gave in and resorted to violence. My mother was horrified that I did such a thing, and Reggie sympathised with me, we both had the same colouring. When my father heard about the accident he chuckled, but not as any father would chuckle. It seemed lifeless and fake, as if another person was controlling his actions. That's when he told me he was going to take me to his work tomorrow. But tomorrow can be a very long time.

He drove to work and parked a block away from the office, apparently all of the parking spots in the building are reserved. As we walked in he immediately took me up to the top floor, where his boss was located. The man was quite tall and had spiky mid-blue hair and wore similar clothes to my father's. He said that I would be a great subject, and that he should bring in my older brother tomorrow.

Next thing I knew, I was tied down to a chair in what appeared to be a hair salon. The was a person behind me that looked like my father, but I knew he wasn't. He held a bottle of clear liquid with a skull on it, bleach. He poured it over my hair and left it to take the colour and liveliness out of it. After my shoulder length hair had turned white, he rinsed it out and put in another chemical, this one was the same aqua as his hair. That's when I knew I had to get out of there. I struggled in the chair and tried to loosen the rope, only to fail hopelessly. The man behind was laughing almost evilly as he brought the chemical covered brush lower to my head. I screamed.

At that moment, something must have over ridden the hold they had on my dad. He came rushing in and knocking the other guy out cold. He quickly undid the rope, picked me up and ran out to where the car was parked, putting me in the back-seat and driving off at high-speeds on a city road.

I was crying by the time I got home. My mother and Reggie were confused by what had happened, so my dad explained while Mum tried to calm me down. After the story had been told, there was a knocking at the door. Dad went to answer it and never back up the stairs, and Mum went to check on him. She told us to come down and showed us a slip of paper stuck on the door. It said that our father was no more and he worked for Team Galactic, nothing could stop him from working for them. We all fell into a crumpled heap on the floor, crying over our loss, but accepting the fate and wishing him luck.

Less than a week later, Mum was crashed on the floor with a bottle of whiskey in hand. She had been drinking. Over the next few days it became worst, she had built up a tolerance and that was the only thing that she would eat or drink had to have alcohol on it or in it. She started going crazy with the amount she was in-taking and we had sent her to hospital many times in a few months. Eventually though, she cracked completely.

One day after my first day at primary school, our mother kicked us in the door and tugged Reggie up by the scruff of his neck, dragging him up the stairs to her room and locked the door. I could hear his yelps of pain, the crack of a belt and her shouting at him. It went on for several minutes before I couldn't take it any more and ran off into the back streets of Veilstone.

I sat in an abandoned alleyway amongst cardboard boxes crying. I was there for at least an hour before someone found me. He was a tall boy, had red just past chin-length hair and silver-grey eyes. He wore a black sleeved, blue jacket and black track pants. He must have been a few years older than me, but he seemed accepting of me, unlike any of the children at school. I told him what was happening and he explained that was only going to be here for a few more weeks before he had to go back to his home region, but he wanted to show me something.

I followed him through several back-streets before seeing a small wore-out log cabin at the edge of the city. He opened the door of reveal a small group of people all around my age to people waiting to go on their journeys. He introduced me and told them of my situation, but instead of them telling me to go and deal with it, they started to help me. Over the time I spent there, they gave me ways to defend myself and taught me that being powerful is the best protection against anything. I was being to feel happiness again. Six weeks later, the red-head -who I had come to know as Silver- gave me his jacket, even though it was way too big for me. He told me to where it all the time, as a reminder that there are people who care.

During that time, it was only Reggie getting beaten. We came home from school and Mum (if I could still call her that) picked me up and whipped me. She shouted at me, over and over again. Saying that it was my fault that Dad got arrested. When she had run out of energy Reggie comforted me, and help heal all the cuts I got from the metal buckle. From that day forward, she would take turns in beating us. One day it was Reggie the next, it was me sometimes for two days in a row because I didn't get any before.

The bullying at school got worse. Everyone pushing and poking the various bruises, cuts and scars I got at home. I tried to stay away from the others but they found me and purposefully annoyed me. I had no sympathy for that boy when I gave him a bloody nose. Only the older boys came after then, but I still tried to avoid them. I didn't want anyone else to know what I was suffering, they wouldn't understand; only the gang and Reggie knew about what I was feeling. I withdrew myself from everyone, bullies, teachers, the councillor Reggie set-up for me and at times even Reggie.

At one point I ran away to live with the gang for a few days. I had peace, nothing could hurt me. We went through town, some of the boys pick-pocketing adults and trainers for money so we could buy food, others just stole food straight from the shops. I was taught how to pick locks as well, it helped get old warehouses and other buildings that we could make a new base in.

I avoided school as well, I think Reggie was worried because while I was wandering the streets trying to find an unsuspecting trainer, he came up to me, asking where I was for the last five days. I told him the truth and Reggie just shook his head and dragged me kicking and screaming back home.

There was no one else in tear when I got home, except for me. As a punishment for running away, I got beaten until I was unconscious. Not from blood loss, but falling asleep. I was beat from the end of school time until the time I fell asleep. According to Reggie it was eleven o'clock, so I was beaten for eight hours non-stop. My mother fell asleep not long after and Reggie brought me into his room and nursed me, only for me to be beaten again the next morning.

The next Monday I skipped my classes and joined Reggie in his. He was in the last year of school before he could get his trainer license, while I was nearly finished kindergarten. It turned out that Reggie only had one friend, a short pink haired girl who wore work-out clothes. She was quite friendly and well trained in martial arts, but didn't know the first thing about making a Pokémon powerful. I hung around with them, trying to avoid everyone else. Someone did actually come up to us and started making fun of the cuts I had on my face. Maylene kicked him in the gut and I never saw him again.

I think someone must had seen the way our mum treated us when she let us in the house because later that week, the police came by and arrested her for child abuse. They said we would have to go into child-care, but after what my experience of child-care was like, I ran straight out the door ignoring all protests. Reggie came and found me in the alleyway where I met Silver and I told him about the gang, and how we could live with them instead of in child-care. Eventually Reggie agreed, though I think it was because he only had a few months left of school before he was a trainer and could take us through the leagues.

After staying with them for a month, the older guys -that had come back from their journeys-, taught Reggie how to battle and catch Pokémon. One of the guys gave him a Starly as his first Pokémon, and after a few weeks of training with the gang, Reggie started battling other trainers for money. I have a feeling that the main reason being that he didn't like us stealing.

Eventually though, he announces that he had gain enough money for us to stay at our house. I asked what the point was, because he was only two months away from being a trainer. He explained that all of our stuff was there and if we left it any longer, we would have a bigger mess to clean. I reluctantly agreed to go with him, if he allowed me to visit the gang whenever I wanted, which he did. We stayed at the house and cleaned it up until it was cleaner then when our parents were with us. We took care of our selves and learnt how to cope with the situation.

Two months later, Reggie found me in the playground and showed me his trainer card; our ticket out of there. We git home and packed our things, vowing to never return unless absolutely necessary.

We hit the road, travelling through Sinnoh, Heonn, Johto, and Kanto. He was almost unstoppable, only ever beaten in the last few rounds of the leagues. But he never gave up, nor did his smile falter. He just insisted that he would do better next time. I looked up to him and saw my hero, but of course with sibling rivalry, I promised to be better than he ever was.

We travelled through Kanto twice, first going through the league then the battle frontier. Even then he managed to smash all of the leaders without much of a sweat. Until he was at the Battle Pyramid. Just before I got my starter Pokémon, Turtwig, from Professor Rowan with high hopes of the outcome of the battle. His battle again Brandon crushed me, the one light left in my life was gone. A full 6-on-6 battle and Reggie lost with 6 loses and 0 wins. I swore to himself that I would never be as weak as he was and I would achieve what he couldn't. I didn't hate him, just looked down on him from then after. And his smile still didn't fade.

We returned to our house and Reggie took up work experience in the day-care at Solaceon Town, deciding that he wanted to be a breeder. I stayed with him for two years, to help him set up his own business. That and he didn't want me to leave him on bad terms. I did forgive him, but still vowed to do better and be better than he ever could be. I would be a Pokémon Master.

I was twelve when he let me go on my journey, and on the last day of the first week, I ran into that idiot who had lost his Pikachu that knew 'Volt Tackle'. Then I met you. I didn't acknowledge you at first but when you shouted at me in the Oreburg Gym I noticed something different welling inside me. At first I ignored it, but we kept running into each other and it got stronger, but I refused to let myself get hurt again.

You kept pushing and finally cracked me. I agreed to travel with you. I started going out with you. I proposed to you. I married you. I fell in love with you, with all of my shattered heart and I still hold my wedding vows to this day. I love you, Dawn Shinji.

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**I'm not used to writing in this style, but it fits with the story. Anyway, please review and tell me what you think! **


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